The Catcher's Dreams (FEATURED)

CHAPTER ELEVEN - the return of lilac

Drake did his homework that evening to the soft rituals of raindrops. It was the first time this year that they'd come, much earlier than usual. They danced on his roof and puddled up in cults and slid sacrifices down the chimney.

Then some of the rain disappeared, and he would realize some time later that what he'd taken to be part of the drizzle was actually a broken-down shower in a forgotten bathroom. Not much later, he heard a frantic knock on his room's door.

"Hello?" he asked, pulling it open. He thought it would be an Ayi, but the Ayis were usually downstairs by now, washing the dishes.

Standing in the corridor was a creature, tall and slender in its beauty, wearing a pure cloth draped and tucked into place with precision. Its skin was pale and creamy, and it gazed at him with wide, exquisitely wooden eyes. Lips opened, gentle as rose quartz. The creature's scalp was covered in thin, brownish dots, and at the back, wisps of semitransparent brown. It was outlined in a solid mass of lilac, and as it raised its arms, the lilac spread to form wings.

"Can you take us outside?" it asked.

It was then when Drake smelled the strong baby powder and realized what he had presumed to be some alien figure was, in reality, a human girl. A human girl, in fact, by the name of Cassandra Hirsch.

"Cassie!" Drake exclaimed. "What happened to your hair?"

"I cut it off," Cassandra explained. "It's hard to wash, I realized, when it reaches my ankles. I haven't washed it in such a while so it was nearly impossible. And Grey had this habit of playing with it, getting it tangled in his fur."

Now that Drake could hear her speak for longer periods of time, he noticed she spoke with a delayed quality, breaking off some of her sentences at inopportune moments and pronouncing syllables with a strange lilt. He couldn't remember if that was how she used to sound.

His eyes also kept shifting to the lilac surrounding her. It was her new glow, or what used to be her new glow. Now it was more than a glow; a huge perfumed opaque outline a meter thick, spreading all around her. This new glow was stronger than her original glow had been, and stranger as well.

"Can you take us outside?" she repeated.

"Huh?" The candles inside Drake's eyes dripped black wax and flickered.

"You're the only food-bringer – or whatever you are – that steps outside the house. So can you take us outside? We'd so love to see the outside." She looked down fondly. At her heels, a fuzzy head emerged out of her glow, sending water-like ripples through the lilac. It was followed by a pair of stubby legs and the rest of her kitten, leaping forward with its own softer glow. It wound around Drake's legs and purred. It was itchy.

"It's raining," Drake said.

"Raining," Cassie repeated thoughtfully. "That's what I thought it was called."

"Meow," Grey said.

"Let's go outside," Drake agreed.

#

From what they could see of the rain, there was no thunder or lightning. It was simply a interminable whitish drizzle that banged down on pipes and sloshed the dirt into mud. Drake and Cassandra peered out of the window for a while.

"Reckon we should wear something outside our pajamas?"

"We can borrow the fancy clothes in that room next to yours."

"You mean Mom and Dad's room?"

"I suppose. Whoever they are."

Cassie chose a coat. It was a shiny one, with fur on the sleeves and around the hood, but it fit and was cozy and that was okay. She slipped on the furry hood. It hid her bare head. Her lilac pulsed as she laughed, somewhat smothered by the coat.

"I feel like Grey," she giggled, running one set of spidery fingers through the fur on her right sleeve. "All furry and soft."

Drake grabbed the nearest article of waterproof-looking clothing and prayed it wasn't for girls. Thankfully, it was Dad's raincoat. When he put it on, shadows slipped over his body, swallowing him whole. The sleeves kissed the ground.

"Come on," Cassandra said, racing down the stairs. Her coat trailed behind her like a pair of dark furry wings. Grey pulsed at her heels, paws a blur.

"Coming," Drake said, picking up the sides of his coat. They slipped under numb fingers. Cassandra flew down the steps with Grey barely managing to keep up, both with no time for Drake whatsoever. He followed, stumbling over the troublemaking length of the coat, hands fumbling inside sleeves for a railing to grip onto. A hood smothered his view and he lost grip, barreling down the stairs. Head, shoulders, back, head, shoulders, back, stop. He lay there for a while, basking in the numbness. He lay there until the chiming bells of Cassandra's faraway laughter woke him up.

His eyelids fluttered like butterflies fresh from the chrysalis, tired and drooping. Two fingers shoved the hood away.

"Come on, small food-bringer; let us go outside!"

They were waiting at the door, accompanied by scores of shoes: some small, some larger, and all winking with crisp untouched beauty save for Drake's dogeared school shoes and sneakers.

Drake stumbled over, bending down to slip on his sneakers. His jacket hood fell over his forehead again. "Aren't you going to put on shoes, Cassie?"

"Shoes?" She looked at him. "Rain boots? I think I do have a pair somewhere."

Yes. Rain boots. Drake slipped his sneakers off and replaced them.

"Ready?" Cassandra asked. She had slipped Grey under her jacket, where he vibrated with warm purrs.

The rain thrummed against the door, increasing in volume. Drake winked at Cassie's pulsing glow from under his hood. The lilac blocked the rest of the hallway from his view.

"Whenever you are," he said.